Cope: Human rights day for all South Africans

Human Rights Day is for all South Africans and not for a particular area, Cope leader Mosioua Lekota said on Wednesday.

"When Indians were forcibly removed it was a human rights violation," Lekota said at the Human Rights Day celebrations in Kliptown, Soweto.

In his message of support he said political parties had a duty to educate South Africans on the fact that human rights were not about the Sharpeville and Langa massacres.

"It is about human rights," he said.

The remarks followed violent protest in the Vaal over the Human Rights events being held in Soweto instead of Sharpeville.

Human Rights Day was previously known as Sharpeville Day to commemorate the shooting of 69 black protesters by the police in 1960.

SA Human Rights Commission deputy chairwoman Pregs Govender said apartheid police were blinded by fear and hatred when they opened fire on protesters in Sharpeville.

She said in modern South Africa poverty was the greatest human rights violation.

"Sixteen million people, mostly woman, in rural areas have no access to sanitation," said Govender.

She highlighted the unenclosed toilets in the Western Cape and the Free State as examples of old apartheid human rights violations.

Earlier, the crowd at the Walter Sisulu Square in Kliptown erupted in cheers when Zuma walked around the square.

Security was tight around him with marshals wearing orange jackets forming a human chain around him and his bodyguards pushing photographers away.

Zuma was accompanied by Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe, Justice Minister Jeff Radebe, Deputy Basic Education Minister Enver Surty and Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane.

A lone protester greeted the morning crowd with a poster at the entrance to the square asking the ANC about its conscience.

"ANC where is your conscience? Sharpeville 21 March 1960," the placard read.